Welcome to Rapporteur. This is Nicoletta Ionta with Eddy Wax in Brussels.

Need-to-knows:

Gaza: Greta Thunberg detained after Israeli forces intercept aid flotilla

Exclusive: Member states draft blueprint for Affordable Housing Master Plan

Copenhagen: EU leaders back stronger role for defence ministers on security

A mood of doom and urgency filled the corridors of Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace on Wednesday as Mette Frederiksen welcomed EU leaders for talks on bolstering defence and shoring up support for Ukraine.

With drones and fighter jets testing Europe’s skies, the Danish prime minister and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that these hybrid threats demanded a sharper response. Yet as so often in Brussels, unity proved elusive once the discussion turned to money.

At the centre of the debate are more than €200 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets. Von der Leyen maintained that the Commission has a “legally sound” basis to use the funds to secure a Ukraine loan.

But Belgium and Luxembourg pushed back, wary of being left with the legal and political risks. Belgium, where Euroclear manages most of the cash, is particularly hesitant. Prime Minister Bart De Wever, pressed by reporters, stayed silent before journalists – his comments are not expected until later this morning.

The country cannot be the only member state carrying the risk, von der Leyen said, appealing to the collective conscience of the bloc. Council President António Costa set the next leaders’ summit, on 23-24 October, as the moment of truth – “decision time."

Another proposal, to build an EU “drone wall,” exposed familiar divides. Repeated incursions in the north and east have spurred Nordic and Baltic governments to push for rapid action.

France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, the big four, urged caution. Frederiksen tried to play down the geography, describing the project as broadly “useful in many different areas” though naturally tied to the eastern flank, while von der Leyen reframed the idea as a “360-degree” shield for the continent.

The summit ended without formal written conclusions. The only tangible step forward appeared to be a vague agreement to give defence ministers more authority, and a more prominent role between leaders’ meetings, Magnus Lund Nielsen reports.

Moscow, meanwhile, is preparing reprisals. According to Bloomberg, the Kremlin is drawing up plans to nationalise and sell foreign-owned assets if Brussels moves against its frozen reserves.

Europe is running out of room for hesitation. The October summit will reveal whether the bloc has the political will to match its rhetoric.

Scooplet: States push housing master plan

EU member states have drawn up a blueprint to roll out the bloc’s long-discussed Affordable Housing Master Plan, handing the Commission a detailed set of recommendations contained in draft Council conclusions, seen by Rapporteur.

The draft calls on Brussels to revisit State aid rules – including those governing Services of General Economic Interest and the General Block Exemption Regulation – to allow governments to support housing projects “faster and simpler” in cases of market failure. It also outlines a new “hub” to pool EU funds with private capital and connect cities, developers, and investors, alongside efforts to streamline regulation for the residential sector.

The plan, championed by Socialists and revived by von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, is expected to feature on the agenda of the European Council later this month. Technical-level debate on the draft is scheduled for next week.

Israeli forces intercept Gaza aid flotilla

A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday night said several of its vessels were intercepted in international waters by Israeli forces.

The Global Sumud Flotilla – made up of roughly 45 ships including high-profile passengers such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and several members of the European Parliament – set sail from Spain last month to break Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory. Organisers said they lost contact with some vessels after interception.

Thunberg was detained during the incident and taken into custody at the port of Ashdod.

Copenhagen hosts diplomatic extravaganza

More than 40 heads of state and government are gathering today at the Bella Center in Copenhagen for a meeting of the European Political Community, the bloc and its concentric circles of neighbours.

On the agenda are cross-border crime, migration, and security. Yet the real value of the gathering lies elsewhere: a chance to mingle informally. “It’s a diplomatic flea market” one senior EU diplomat said.

Last night, participants including Britain’s PM Keir Starmer and Albania’s Edi Rama dined with Denmark’s King Frederik, who served Greenlandic cod and Danish chanterelles.

Danish research minister: EU can’t afford civil-only research

Billions of euros from the EU’s research budget should be redirected to civilian projects with military applications to ensure the bloc remains competitive in emerging space and digital technologies, Denmark’s research minister said.

“Insisting on only a civil use of the European research programme is unfortunately a luxury that we can no longer afford,” Christina Egelund told my colleagues Aurélie Pugnet and Maximilian Henning. The move aims to prevent Europe from falling behind in critical tech and defence sectors.

Brussels plans AI hub for scientists

The Commission is preparing to launch a “virtual institute” to support Europe’s scientists in using artificial intelligence, according to a draft strategy obtained by Euractiv and expected to be presented next week.

The institute would pool research capabilities across the bloc and provide scientists with access to the EU’s “AI Gigafactories,” initiatives so far aimed largely at industry. A pilot version is due to begin next month, but the institute itself would not be fully operational until 2028, just after the start of the next multi-year budget.

2026 delay likely for EU deforestation law

Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told ENVI committee coordinators on Wednesday that enforcement of the EU’s anti-deforestation regulation may slip to 2026 – the first time she has acknowledged the prospect of such a delay.

Technical issues are unlikely to be resolved by year’s end, making a one-year postponement increasingly probable, according to insiders. My colleague Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro has more from the closed-door meeting.

Kartheiser organises EU-Russia video call

Fernand Kartheiser, a Luxembourgish member of Parliament who was expelled from the ECR in June over his pro-Russia stance, led a video call on Wednesday with lawmakers from the Russian State Duma, according to an email seen by Rapporteur.

Other MEPs also joined the exchange, which touched on EU-Russia relations, economic issues, and the conflict in Ukraine. The participants agreed to continue dialogue through video calls, written proposals, and possible in-person meetings on the sidelines of international conferences.

Kartheiser, who visited Moscow in May, previously defended his outreach as an attempt to “break the ice” amid frozen channels of communication.

PARIS 🇫🇷

France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, will send his first 2026 budget draft to the High Council of Public Finances before presenting it to lawmakers around 13 October. With Socialists demanding a wealth tax and rollback of pension reform – both ruled out by Lecornu – the path to approval looks narrow ahead of Friday’s final talks.

BUDAPEST 🇭🇺

Viktor Orbán’s government has moved to extend Hungary’s state of emergency until May 2026, meaning the next parliamentary elections in April will take place under emergency rule. The measure, justified by the war in Ukraine, allows Orbán to govern by decree – a power critics say threatens electoral fairness.

ROME 🇮🇹

Italy’s largest union has called a general strike for Friday after Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla. CGIL leader Maurizio Landini on Wednesday said that such the move would amount to “an act of war,” issuing the warning just two weeks after a nationwide strike that brought out half a million people, disrupted trains, and sparked clashes with police.

WARSAW 🇵🇱

Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski on Wednesday rebuked Orbán after the Hungarian prime minister accused Poland’s leader, Donald Tusk, of endangering Europe’s security with his stance on Ukraine. Orbán’s remarks came after Tusk argued at the Warsaw Security Forum that the war in Ukraine was also “our war.” Bartoszewski shot back that Orbán was “financing this war” through Hungary’s continued purchases of Russian oil.

BERLIN 🇩🇪

German authorities arrested three men in this city on Wednesday suspected of working with Hamas to prepare attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets, Der Spiegel reported. The suspects were accused of seeking weapons and ammunition at the group’s direction, in a case adding to security concerns for Europe’s Jewish communities amid the Gaza war.

PRAGUE 🇨🇿

Czech intelligence warned this week that coordinated networks of TikTok bots are pushing pro-Russian narratives and boosting anti-establishment parties ahead of the country’s elections on 3-4 October. Nearly a thousand accounts have been flagged, drawing millions of views weekly, though officials say the influence is limited.

Brussels protests: Protests erupted in Brussels last night after Israeli forces boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, with demonstrators marching from Place de la Bourse to the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

Hijab row: Lawmakers from Parliament’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup challenged a proposal by Charlie Weimers, a Swedish conservative, to ban hijabs and other “Islamic headscarves” in the chamber.

In a letter to President Roberta Metsola, the MEPs expressed “deep concern,” warning such a ban “would not only lack legal and practical justification, but … undermine the fundamental values upon which the European Union and its institutions are built.”

The letter, obtained by Rapporteur, said there was “no evidence of disruption” related to headscarves, calling it a “non-issue.” It also stressed that Parliament, as an autonomous institution, has the authority to set its own standards and is under “no legal requirement” to replicate national neutrality rules.

Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated the status of Poland’s Law and Justice Party. PiS is in the opposition.

As Europe frets over drones and frozen Russian assets, the bigger threat to its security may be economic.

In an op-ed for Euractiv, Simon Nixon, publisher of the Wealth of Nations newsletter, argues that with the US weaponising trade and capital, while China dominates in clean technology, the EU needs its own “economic drone wall” – deeper single-market integration, more diversified trade, and strategic investment in critical sectors – or risk being left poorer and weaker.

➡ European Political Community summit in Copenhagen

➡ Brunner at Europol Cybercrime conference in The Hague

➡ Metsola meets Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

➡ Virkkunen in Athens, meets PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis

➡ Šuica in Tunisia, meets Economy Minister Samir Abdelhafidh and Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti

Contributors: Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Magnus Lund Nielsen, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro, Nikolaus J. Kurmayer, Maximilian Henning, Aurélie Pugnet, Niko Kurmayer, Catalina Mihai, Aneta Zachová, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Inés Fernández-Pontes, Laurent Geslin, Jeremias Lin

Editors: Christina Zhao, Sofia Mandilara